#edith nesbit

I noticed that in the first page you have a quote from E. Nesbit from her “the book of twelve whirlpools”. Since Evelyn Nesbitt is kind of an important player in the whole Harry Crosby / Harry Thaw disturbed scion milieu, I thought maybe she had written fiction, and I might find it on project Gutenberg. Different lady, as you know, but I was delighted to find that the book you quote from is available for free on project Gutenberg, so I’m definitely going to be reading it next. I was surprised to find that you added three whirlpools to the title, because the story is “the book of nine whirlpools” but I hope I’m not spoiling anything because that might be one of those signs that something is set in an alternate dimension. Overall excited and thank you for being a sign post to things that I have not heard of.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23661

First of all: hope you have fun with The Wounded Sky. I sure did. :)

About the Nesbit situation: I must confess I knew nothing at all about Evelyn Nesbit until you just now introduced me to her. That whole saga—just judging from what appears in the period newspapers—is seriously wild.

Edith Nesbit, though (or E. Nesbit, her name as she preferred to use it in auctorial mode) is indeed another story. She's one of my major influences, and one of the first writers I ever binged (probably at around age six: even before Arthur Conan Doyle). She had a difficult and lively life—indeed the adjective "tumultuous" wouldn't be out of place to describe it. But to me, the most notable thing about her is the subtle and pervasive way that her social conscience underlaid her writing, and especially her children's fantasy work: a solid skeleton that's sometimes fairly well buried and sometimes very close indeed to the skin. Later on, her social conscience also broke out into overt political activism (in what we now would generally think of as a left-adjacent, socialist mode).

The Wikipedia article mentions that Nesbit's considered by some to be the creator of the modern children's fantasy genre, so it's no surprise that at least some of her work would be available on Gutenberg (as surely the vast majority of it, if not all, is in the public domain now). There's a full list of everything she did on the Wikipedia page.

Meanwhile, as for the error in the title of "The Island of the Nine Whirlpools": At this end of time, there's no telling how that happened, as the original manuscript is long since either lost, destroyed or auctioned off somewhere. I wish there was some way to blame it on my copyeditor, but that kinda feels like grasping at straws. :) Doubtless it was my fault, so: sorry about that.

And the quote, to my mind, still seems both absolutely valid, and a pointer toward a significant part of my mindset about science fiction and fantasy in general:

"...two great powers are on our side: the power of Love and the power of Arithmetic. Those two are stronger than anything else in the world."

"He could not pervade her." - H. G. Wells writing of Edith Nesbit and her husband.

He could not pervade her, though he kept her by his side. He could not invade her as a man should with his bride.

He could not amuse her, his humor falling flat. He could not peruse her, couldn't read her, fancy that!

He could not entice her; she never wanted "things". He could not arouse her, and her words would often sting.

He could not persuade her; her eyes were open wide. He could not convince her; she knew it when he lied.

And part way though it, I realised that I’ve heard this story before. Not read it. Heard it.

A while back I listened to a radio play version of the story from the Hall of Fantasy radio show, originally broadcast in April 1947. You can listen to it on youtube:

(I do enjoy the channel Choice Classic Radio, there’s some good stuff on there).